Confederate State of Richmond: A Biography of the Capital

by Emory M. Thomas and Emery M. Thomas

Book Overview

In this, his first book, originally published in 1971, noted historian Emory M. Thomas offers an astute analysis of Civil War Richmond that remains unchallenged to this day. Blending official documents and city council minutes with personal diaries and newspaper accounts, Thomas vividly recounts the military, political, social, and economic experiences of the Confederate capital, providing a compelling drama of home-front war that, in Richmond's case,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807123196
• ISBN13: 9780807123195
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: LSU Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Another winner for Thomas

Eminent Civil War historian Emory Thomas has another winner with this, his first book. I previously read Thomas' book, The Confederate Nation, which, although written in the late 1970s, is still the best work on the history of the Confederacy's non-military side. This book is just as good and is one of the best of a growing list of works on Richmond. Thomas, a native of the city, writes the book in such a way that you feel like you are there in the city. He starts off with a brief sketch of the city and notes that Richmond had often led in revolutionary times. He quickly jumps to the war years and does a great job of using a variety of sources such as newspapers, diaries, journals, memoirs, secondary sources, congressional records, and the minutes of the city council to paint a portrait of the capital city. The chapters fly by in this very readable book. A very interesting book to read, easy to read, and as entertaining as history gets. Along with Ernest Fergusun's Ashes of Glory, the best book on wartime Richmond during the Civil War.

Where were you when I needed you.

I set off for a trip to Richmond, VA last year confident that I could pick up a copy of this useful little book while there.I was astonished to find that I couldn't buy a copy in any of the downtown bookstores or museum shops. How I would have loved to have had this history and guide with me to make me fully aware of how each place I visited was connected to some stirring or painful act of our great national tragedy.This book is a fine companion piece to Margaret Leech's wonderful "Reveille in Washington".Emory Thompson has written a remarkably interesting and able history and one that no visitor to Richmond should be without.